Early data suggests that an omicron tidal
wave is about to crash upon the US shores as this extremely contagious COVID variant
continues making its presence felt in places like South Africa and the United
Kingdom, while quickly becoming the most dominant strain.

Scientists based in South Africa have already
established that this newest variant spreads at twice the speed as the Delta
variant, which was categorized as the most infectious yet. Now, the CDC has
also warned that the nation could be looking at a surge in omicron cases as
early as January 2022. Even now, there has been a significant uptake in the
presence of the variant, over the past week.
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There are some concerns that this wave
could coincide with a wave of winter Delta infections and the seasonal flu
wave. Currently, omicron makes up for 3% of the total number of COVID cases in
the nation. It is present in 38 states and the total number of infections have
been on a rise since October. In some places like New York City, omicron makes
up for around 13% of the total infections. The city’s mayor, Bill de Blasio,
has accepted that omicron is evading immunity in unique ways previously unseen
in other variants.

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WHO officials have already accepted that
it is spreading faster than any known COVID variant. Dr Mike Ryan who’s in
charge of the emergencies programme, stated “Right now in the United Kingdom, we’re seeing two days or
less, which means the number of cases are doubling every two days or less than
every two days”. British authorities have already labelled omicron the
most significant health threat the country is facing currently. The spread of
the virus has the rest of Europe worried as well. Other countries, like
Denmark, where omicron cases are doubling almost every two days, are considering
new restrictions to curb this infection’s spread.